Chapter Eight
Sirius was nervous. Or, not nervous per se, just anxious, fidgety. Being little around other people always made him like that. He wasn’t sure why, when he was big, Sirius loved being around people, loved the attention. But little Sirius… not so much.
As they made their way away from the castle and towards Hogsmeade, Sirius walked as close to Remus as he possibly could. Their shoulders were pressed together and every time their fingers brushed, he wanted Remus to reach out and hold his own. Remus however, did not do that. As much as Sirius wanted it, the two of them holding hands in public would’ve only made him uncomfortable and Remus knew that. So the two of them walked side by side to Hogsmeade with only their shoulders touching.
A Little bit of Magic. That was the shop they were looking for. The only place in Hogsmeade that was for littles. The shop was heavily enchanted so that you could only find it if you were looking for it and not a neutral. It was all pretty complicated magic, and frankly, Sirius wasn’t too bothered to learn how it all worked.
He and Remus were looking for it in a part of the village Sirius didn’t recognize. It was residential but at the same time oddly… empty. There were still people milling about but not nearly as many as there were in most of the village. Here, it was comparatively quiet.
Sirius looked up to see Remus scanning the area, completely focused. Sirius followed his gaze and automatically reached to tug lightly on the sleeve of Moony’s sweater when he saw the shop. It was a boring looking house with nothing but a small sign above the shop with the letters ‘ALBOM’ carefully painted on and made to look like toy blocks.
Remus looked down at Sirius and then up to where he pointed. Recognition appeared on his face as he saw it. Remus gave him a sweet smile, “Thanks Pads. You did a really good job!” Sirius felt a swell of pride in the pit of his stomach and he grinned so wide it hurt his cheeks. It was a good thing he wasn’t Padfoot right then because the wagging of his tail would’ve made his joy from Remus’ praise more obvious.
As they neared the store, Sirius kept his hand firmly gripped where he had grabbed onto Remus. His boyfriend didn’t seem to mind and he held the door open as they walked in.When they stepped inside of the shop, Sirius’ jaw dropped.
Every inch of the shop was filled with an array of adorable little things. There were quite a few aisles, more than it looked like there could be when you peered in from the outside (likely thanks to an extension charm). They all hand big signs hanging above them listing the contents of each. Actually, it was almost entirely similar to a muggle grocery store except for the fast that everything there was so clearly meant for littles.
Sirius followed Remus over to the shopping carts and watched as the other boy grabbed ahold of one and pulled it in front of him. “Do you want to ride in the cart?” Remus asked.
Sirius looked at him, confused, “I won’t fit,” he stated.
“Yes you will. I promise,” Remus assured him.
Sirius crossed his arms and pouted, glaring wearily up at Remus, “Do you pinky promise?”
Remus chuckled and held out his pinky for Sirius, “Pinky promise.”
Sirius accepted the pinky and then Remus picked him up and put him down gently into the front of the basket. Sirius thought he felt something magic-y adjust the size of the seat because sure enough, he fit perfectly. He should have known Moony would be right; he always was.
Remus started to push the cart and Sirius swung his legs as they walked down the first aisle. The first thing that they came across were the cups. Not just cup cups though. At first, there were bottles, then sippy cups, and when Sirius looked further down the aisle, he saw a variety of plastic cups with cartoonish designs and fun looking twisty straws. Remus slowed to a stop, “You wanted the sippy cups, right?”
Sirius nodded bashfully. He was still getting used to Remus asking him about little stuff. His boyfriend was looking at all of the cups, “I think handles and a lid. Don’t want you to spill anything if you’re running around,” Remus mumbled. “How does that sound bud?”
Sirius nodded in agreement, cheeks slightly pink, “Can I pick?”
“Yes, of course you can,” Remus answered. “Wanna point so that Moony can grab it for you?”
He looked at the sippys, carefully inspecting each one before pointing his finger towards a dark blue one with a cartoon moon and astronaut. Remus plucked the sippy off of the self and showed it to Sirius for confirmation. When he got it, he set it down in the basket. “I think we should stick with one sippy today, we’ve got quite a bit else to buy and I don’t fancy carrying it all up to the dorm.”
Sirius made a noise of agreement and began nibbling on the end of his thumb. Remus noticed this and tsked, “Padfoot, we talked about that…” he patted his pockets and grimaced, “I forgot to bring your pacifier, but I really don’t want your fingers in your mouth.”
Sirius furrowed his brows and stuck his finger farther into his mouth, upset by the fact that he couldn’t have his binky. Remus frowned and gently tugged Sirius’ thumb out of his mouth, “Please don’t do that baby. Can we keep our fingers out of our mouth for Moony?”
Sirius whined, “I wan’ paci and you no gimmie! Only got fingies…”
Remus gave him a sympathetic look, “I know Pads, Moony’s really sorry. Can we please try though, for me? I can get you another paci if you try your best not to.”
Sirius shook his head, “I no wanna new one. I likes mine.”
“How ‘bout a new toy then? Or a coloring book?” Remus offered.
“I get new colors?” Sirius asked.
“Yes. We can get you some new colors.” Remus agreed.
Sirius was happy after that and they moved onto the next aisle. This one had clothes. They were magically made to be one-size-fits-all of course, so Sirius could just pick anything he liked.
He pointed at a Gryffindor themed footsie and Remus grabbed it for him, “Someone likes their house, I see.”
Sirius grinned in response, “Mhmm, lions weally cool!”
Aside from that, Sirius picked out a few more pajamas and even found some really cool looking T-shirts and shorts. After he had picked everything he liked, Remus took a moment to sort through it all in their cart. As he did, Sirius’ eyes wandered.
At the end of the aisle, just a few feet in front of them was a small selection of diapers. They had simple designs on them but all were rather cutesy. Sirius stared at them for a while and Remus looked up at him and then followed his gaze. “Pads?” he asked.
Sirius blinked and refocused his eyes on Remus, who was looking at him kindly. “Were you,” he trailed off. His voice was delicate as he continued, “Did you want to take a look at the nappies?” he asked.
Sirius felt his face get hot and he huffed, “ ‘m not a baby.”
Remus continued to be gentle with him and Sirius squirmed a bit under his gaze, “I never said you were. If you want to look at them, we can.”
Sirius glanced up wearily at the packages of diapers on the shelves, “I don’t need them,” he insisted, “Pads big.”
Remus shook his head, “You can still wear them even if you don’t need to,” he explained, “Do you want to?”
Sirius looked down, “They’re so thick…”
Remus smiled sweetly, “They have more options on the next row. We don’t have to get any but we can look if you want to,” he told him.
Sirius looked up at him timidly, “Can we?”
Remus squeezed his hand, “Of course we can.”
Remus pushed Sirius into the row titled Protection. All around them were different brands, sizes, and types of diapers. It made Sirius a bit nervous and he wiggled around uncomfortably in his seat. Remus slowly pushed them down the aisle, looking at the different shelves until they reached a section a bit further than the middle of the aisle. This section was filled with pull-ups, which Sirius suspected wouldn’t be as buldgey as the regular diapers would have been.
“There’s a few options here if you don’t like the really thick ones,” Remus muttered. “But um, which one we should get might be based on whether or not you plan on… using them.”
Sirius squirmined nervously in the seat of the cart again. He wasn’t sure how to answer Remus’ question so he just looked up at him with a plea for help in his eyes.
Remus rubbed circles into the palm of Sirius’ hand. “I want you to be happy, Pads. Whatever you want I’ll help you with and we can talk more about it later if you’re not sure now.”
Sirius tried to pull his hand away from Remus and bring it back up to his mouth. When Remus wouldn’t let him, Sirius let out a whine, wishing that Remus would either give him his binky or let him suck on his thumb.
“No, Pads, I’m sorry,” Remus said, wrapping his hand in his own, “If you want Moony can pick this time so you don’t have to. You want that?” Sirius nodded.
Remus turned around to survey the shelves. While he wasn’t looking, Sirius brought his free hand up to his mouth and inserted his thumb to quietly suck on. When Remus grabbed a package, Sirius quickly took his thumb out so that Moony wouldn’t see. Remus put something in the cart and pushed them into the next aisle.
Sirius’ mood improved as they walked down this new aisle. All around them were toys! He unconsciously pulled his hand away from Moony’s and tried to grab the nearest one off of the shelf. It was a stuffie that resembled a fluffy dog with dark fur.
Remus, noticing, grabbed the dog for him and handed it to Sirius, who clutched it to his chest. “We get doggie?”
Remus hummed a ‘yes’ and continued their walk down the aisle. Sirius picked out some new Quidditch toys (including a small set of figurines in Hogwarts Quidditch robes), a couple of picture books, some magnetic blocks (he knew what magnetic meant because they had learned about it in Muggle Studies but he couldn’t see to remember at the moment), and finally…, “Colors!”
Sirius clapped his hands excitedly as they reached the coloring supplies. He babbled happily and pointed at everything he wanted so that Remus could grab it and put it in the cart. He got new crayons, some blank paper, and two new coloring books consisting of forest animals and magical birds respectively!
After that the only thing to get was snacks because although they could get an abundance of them from the kitchen, none of the food there was really made for anyone younger than the first years, and Remus didn’t like asking the Hogwarts elfs for anything that they wouldn’t be making already. So, from the store, they got some chicken nuggets, animal crackers, applesauce, and fruit gummies.
Remus brought them to the checkout and worked on paying for all of the stuff. It was Sirius’ money technically, he had adamantly refused to let Moony pay for anything, seeing as he was already doing so much else for Sirius. Besides, Sirius had inherited a large sum of money the previous year on his seventeenth birthday.
As Remus spoke with the cashier, Sirius brought his thumb back into his mouth. He watched Remus intently, ready to pull his thumb out at the slightest hint that he was about to look at Sirius. After Remus paid for everything, Sirius took out his thumb just in time for his boyfriend to lift him out of the cart and set him down.
Remus cast a lightness charm on the bags and carried them all in one hand as they left the store. Sirius followed next to him and they made idle chatter until and eventually found themselves in Gryffindor Tower. Remus set the bags down at the foot of his bed and lay down on his back, heaving with exhaustion. Sirius sat down on his own bed, once again sucking his thumb, and staring at Remus.
The only sound for a while was Moony’s breathing, then he slowly pushed himself up. He frowned when he saw Sirius and went to the other boy’s nightstand, searching the drawer until he found Sirius’ favorite red pacifier. He took Padfoot’s hand out of his mouth and held it as he led him into their bathroom.
“Sirius, you really can’t put fingers in your mouth, they’re all dirty,” Remus turned on the sink and put soap on Padfoot’s hands. Remus helped Sirius rub the soap on his hands and wash it off under the warm running water of the sink. He then helped Sirius dry his hands and then washed off Sirius’ paci and offered it to him. As soon as it was in front of his lips, Sirius took the paci in his mouth and began sucking happily on it.
Remus smiled and took his hand, leading them both to Remus’ bed where the bags of things they had bought were waiting for them. Sirius searched the bags and pulled out the dog stuffie, cuddling it to his chest. Then, he tugged on the sleeve of Remus’ sweater and pointed at the box of crayons.
“Do you want to color?” Remus asked. Sirius nodded and his boyfriend grabbed the new crayons out of the bag song with the rest of Sirius’ new coloring supplies. Sirius grabbed the crayons and a blank piece of paper and left Remus’ bed for his own as he began scribbling.
Remus watched him curiously from his own bed but when he tried to peek at what Sirius was drawing the little one glared and snatched the paper away from where Remus could see. So, Remus put away everything that was in the bags while Sirius drew. When Sirius was finished, he climbed off of his bed and went to show Remus (who had finished putting everything away and was now reading a book) his drawing.
Remus took the drawing when Sirius offered it to him. There were four figures on the paper that Remus recognized as people. One of them was tall and looked to be wearing an oversized sweater. One had a messy mop of dark hair upon his head and a wonky pair of glasses. One had yellow hair and a chocolate frog card in hand. The last had dark hair, a leather jacket, and a red paci. “Is this… us? You, me, James, and Pete?” he asked.
Sirius nodded, happy that Remus had figured it out on his own. Remus took both of Sirius’ hands and kissed them, then he kissed his cheek, causing a giggle to come from the other boy’s mouth.
After that, Sirius took one of his coloring books and continued to make the most of his new crayons. Remus read and talked to Sirius when he wasn’t too busy coloring to listen. The two of them spent the afternoon in their room and what a wonderful afternoon it was.